At Mojitos, displaced clubgoers get their groove back

By Malena Amusa, Globe Correspondent | August 28, 2005

In flashy clothes and sturdy shoes, the crowds thronged to the narrow, multilevel club, swaying and sweating through the night.

They flocked to the Fenway for salsa, merengue, reggaeton, and bachata.

Then, all too suddenly for its faithful patrons, after 10 years across from the ballpark, Sophia's played its last song this past New Year's Eve. Many Latinos and others who love Latin music discovered a hole in their social lives, a club with a certain ''vida" that couldn't be replaced.

Enter Mojitos.

This month, the new Latin club debuted on Winter Street in Downtown Crossing and it's trying to capture the crowd that seemed to vanish with Sophia's.

Not everyone is convinced it can replace the old haunt. Others have tried, including Vertigo, located downtown, and Ryles Jazz Club in Inman Square.

''Sophia's was a good atmosphere," said Nadia Nunez, 22, sitting near the bar with a friend. ''Where are you going to find that again?"

In an effort to reunite the scene, Olaf Bleck, founder of salsaboston.com, and friends started Wednesday salsa nights at Antuanua in Kenmore Square and Friday Latin nights at Vertigo.

''It was hard to have a consolidated place," he said. ''There were different Latin nights at different places all over town. Before, everybody knew that Sophia's was the place to go for Latin, every night of the week."

On a recent Friday night at Mojitos, Nunez and a friend kept their cool, grooving to the booming salsa in their seats.

A tipsy chatter filled the upstairs lounge, where the well-dressed women gazed at the crowd and compared the new club to Sophia's.

For one thing, Sophia's dance floor had much more space, they said. At Mojitos, where a narrow walkway on the second floor crowded with people between the bar, Nunez said: ''It's hard to get to the dance floor."

Others were just happy a new Latin club has come to Boston.

Giordano Bruno Souza, a drummer from Brazil who used to play at Sophia's, said he felt at home at Mojitos. On opening night, he noted, the club's air conditioner had broken down. The rising heat reminded Souza of the hot house that was often Sophia's.

Last Friday, with a djembe drum, an African instrument, strapped to his chest, Souza walked the dance floors, banging his drum and urging people he passed to shake their hips.

''It's almost the same people [that used to attend Sophia's], but a larger amount," he said.

Like Sophia's, which is now an empty storefront on Boylston Street, Mojitos's walls are covered with brick paneling and some of the bouncers are the same. Mojitos also blasts enough traditional salsa and reggaeton to keep all the Latin hipsters gliding along.

The void left by Sophia's inspired club managers David Mandoza, 25, and his twin sister, Jodi, to start Mojitos.

It's ''the only Latin night club since Sophia's club that is exclusively Latin," David Mandoza said.

In its basement, a large mural of Latin legends, including Gloria Estefan and Celia Cruz, greet clubgoers. Transparent coolers on the upstairs bar store the club's sweet, minty namesake.

For Hernan Choque, 31, what really makes Mojitos similar to Sophia's -- and unlike most other clubs -- is that it's not a meat market, he said.

Leaning against a wall by the dance floor, Choque sipped a drink and kept the beat to a merengue song.

Relaxed, he smiled as people filed by.

''I love it," he said. ''There's no other place where Latinos can go."